itu

Series I and II Passions have Schaller bridges (and tuners), and Arpege Vigier's own design bridge. Kahler bridge and the optional vibrato came later.

What I forgot is the mixing. If you are about to make a fine system, do not use simple pot to mix coils/pickups. Study Noll Mixpot, and understand its performance compared to a blend pot. Otherwise you are having a tone pot (yes!), named as blend or vol in your system.

Tobias has had similar system: one double coil pickup, 2 B&T adjustments for coils. Status Paramatrix has even more adjustments. Theoretical: As each pickup is in different position relative to each other, the responses are different, just like in Jazz bass. Do they cancel something out together, most likely. Of course you can have multi coil pickup (or a piezo bridge) and adjust every coil separately. Do you get significant advantage over a simple system, hardly. The main idea is to support pickups, and it is up to you to use hi-Z ("passive") tone pot, or some lo-Z, battery powered circuitry (treble, B&T, B&M&T, semi parametric, B&T tilt, filter...).

Mad Inter offers Blackwood Tek, which is roughly hard, dyed pinus radiata. Sounds good, works well, but colours all things the dust touches. https://www.madinter.com/en/blackwood-tek-en.html

Ti is very soft, Al would benefit from anodizing (more slippery, slightly harder surface). Brass and steel would be my favourites: pretty easy to machine, hard enough to withstand strings, decent price, some colours are possible... How about this one? https://hipshotproducts.com/products/5-string-a-style-bass-bridge

Roughly: Hi-Z pedal can be used everywhere. Lo-Z after any battery powered unit starting from the bass. Placement, just like @BigRedX said, do trials.

We need that string database, it would be really useful. (I would have used the word databass, but it's a Peavey combo amp.)

Very rough description of strings: Nickel roundwound: even, flattish response SS RW: zing and "smiley eq" response Flatwound, and tape wound: no highs, pretty short sustain Half round: something between Ni RW and flatwound Most of the zing of the RWs is lost after some time of playing. It may help to find the right set by varying the thickness of the sets. I thought that the thicker, the tighter, but there seems to be some kind of sweet spot, what suits my basses and my playing. As an example a .120 was the best B in my 35" scale Modulus Quantum. .130 and .135 sounded lousy. Do brave trials.

Last time I visited Switzerland, I detached the Status neck from the body, and packed the parts to my suitcase. I have had bad experience while flying there, so decided to keep the bass beside me. As @JonnyCumbo mentioned, neck inserts are great! After the flight and attaching the neck (in minutes), the tuning changed very little during the tour. Have to say I love Status carbon necks, but the current availability is a nightmare. I wish someone will continue Rob's impeccable work.

Thanks, but I have a Tri-Bass. Closer to my favourite UI.

Mmbucker?

How much power do you want push through it? I'd say no, or modify the lines accordingly: 1.0 - 1.5 mm2 wires to the power lines, neat soldering, and everything well marked. Because err is so human, it might be feasible to have a separate power patch bay. Speakons...

It seems that I have this in my library, too: 100FUNKgroovesforELECTRICBASS https://www.fundamental-changes.com/book/100-funk-bass-grooves/ There are recommended listening, gear checklists, tabs, and a spotify list.

If you need melody, lyrics, and bass notes, try this one (tabs included, too): https://www.thomann.de/gb/hal_leonard_funk_bass_bible.htm

Tower of Power? (George Benson, Prince, Jamiroquai, Level 42... are these too modern?)

We are talking about slightly different things. Carbon track produces noise by itself. But it's something you don't have to worry about in a band context. Most of the companies today use the same pots everywhere: bass, pedals, amps. They are functional, if not the highest quality. Some may say that conductive plastic track, or cermet (ceramic metal) pots would be overkill on a bass (and amp etc.). But they are widely used in analogue mixers, and analogue studio equipment. They are higher quality, although at higher cost. A true limitation is to find suitable parametres (resistance, taper), and a dealer. Mouser is a good place to start with (no affiliation).

True. But a 741 is a noise machine compared to the low noise NE5534. There are several parametres that require energy. Long ago had a Washburn (a copy of Status) which preamp had a single opamp. It was filed blank, so the actual type was unknown. I decided to try several types, because it was easy, and such ICs were (and are still) pretty cheap. TL071 was just fine, the sound was quite close to the original. Power consumption was just slightly larger. The last in line was this NE. Superb sound, deeper bass, wider response, everything was better. Except it was power hungry (OP series wasn't available at that time). Battery (batteries, to be honest) cried, and I had to change batteries pretty often. Later I studied electronics, and started to understand the details. No, I haven't been very active with designing circuitry, although some time ago I fell in love with the designs of our own @Passinwind. His work is very interesting. I wish at least one preamp will find its way to the basses I work with.

This is not that simple. The output level doesn't have to be super high, not at all. Some hi-Z ("passive") basses may even have higher output level. A 9 V battery is an easy option, because it contains enough energy to drive a tiny preamp (usually the tone stack only) for a year or so. The voltage is suitable for an opamp or few. The low output impedance (Z) requires some energy. If the Z is lower, more energy is needed. An NE5534 consumes pretty much energy compared to say, TL07x family, or much newer (and better) opamps. But it is also a very lo-Z output opamp. Alembic used the NE 553x family, and chose an external PSU to drive the high current consumption circuitry. I am not sure, but the PSU could be two sided, someone could maybe verify this? Once more: battery voltage is not directly connected to the output level. Battery powered lo-Z preamp does not have to have higher output than its hi-Z sibling. With all settings maxed out (treble, bass etc.) it is possible, but not a must.

A looper (and an optional click) is probably simple because you can check your playing right away.

Simplified background: Operational amplifiers (opamps) need double sided power. Positive (+), negative (-), and the zero point. A preamp can be built with one sided (with a single 9 V battery), or two sided power (2 x 9 V). Two sided is easier to build, because it is simpler and requires less components (the first battery is the lower side from -9 V to 0 V, and the second from 0 V to +9 V). If a preamp is functional with both options, the circuitry is based on a one sided power, and "an artificial zero point". +9 V 0 V -9 V The preamp sees the lower side (- connected to negative, + connected to 0 V) as negative voltage, and the higher side (- connected together with the first battery to 0 V, + connected to +9 V) as the positive. Opamp is happy with this arrangement. If there's just one battery, the voltage has to be divided with components to positive, negative, and 0 V. More voltage equals more headroom (Status has a preamp running at 4 x 9 V = 36 V, like @Hellzero mentioned), but the output of an ordinary bass is in the ballpark of 1 V (peak to peak). Even a single 3 V battery could be enough to drive a pre. True: depending on the pickups, some transients could reach few volts (peak). [Sometimes it would be wiser to have two batteries in parallel. Then the last drops of the batteries would be used till the very end.]

I think if the pots are not functional, you can ask for a change. I would also mention storing to the luthier. Carbon track pots in general are noisy, and mediocre at best. There are few other types that are higher quality in terms of use and life time, like plastic track (blue Bourns) and cermet type units. These are rare in basses, because of the cost, compared to Alpha and CTS. The price difference may be in the ballpark of 1:10, where one carbon pot is like £1. Please check Mouser et al. I remind you that there are carbon track pots which have been in use for few decades without major issues. After all, some Deoxit once per decade may give very long lifetime, even in active use. Some added noise is negligible in most "electronics" that basses represent. A high end mixer board is another story.

SWR Interstellar Overdrive tce 1140 parametric FI (I would have enough time to tame it) IE Xerograph Deluxe (or Onkart Gromt) envelope +1 tce HyperGravity three band compressor OK, the first two aren't pedals. Then SWR could be Spruce effects Old growth fuzz, and 1140 could be IE Divaricator (X-over). Order: Xero - SWR - FI - 1140 - HG envelope - X-over (fuzz in the loop) - FI - comp The order is this, because I like how envelope reacts to my playing. OD/dist/fuzz loves to be in the front line, just like the envelope. Comp is last and it will take care of the overall level (if needed). Anything else can be between those already mentioned. Oh dear, do I have to build one more set?

Yes, I have seen good looking Js and Precisions, but they're not for me. There was one Pensa-Suhr, and one black fretless BaSSStar, but other than those two, no. I even hate P pickup: it looks dreadful, and the sound, no thank you. I have tried many basses, and there has been some strange encounters: Steinberger L-2: terrible neck! Wal: super electronics, mediocre neck profile Alembic: some models look strange, and they are so heavy! Lakland: varying quality and so on... I do admit that my Genesis 5 is probably closest to a J. But the neck is from another planet. These are my main basses. 1) they please my eye 2) they are comfortable to play 3) they sound fab 4) necks are stable 5) light weight or not very heavy

Please check these out. Basic stuff about compression including bass settings. In studio, yes, but a good starting point for tweaking: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/compression-made-easy https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/compression-limiting